Cover Image: Brave Leadership

Brave Leadership

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Member Reviews

A brave leader is conscious of his own needs and desires, conscious of the impact he have on the people in his life and the world he inhabit, conscious of how he is both vulnerable and so very powerful.

This self help book on leadership is divided in four sections (What is brave, Barriers to brave, Pushing through to brave, A brave new world) and the "Key Takeaways" at the end of each chapter are very useful for recap and fix the main concepts.

You can find just a few of them below:
- Leadership is not about title, position, or power. A leader is someone people want to follow, not have to follow.
- If leadership is about ensuring people want to follow, not have to follow, you must connect to the positive emotions of people you lead and influence.
- If you want to be a brave leader, it’s critical that you recognize that the kind of leadership that worked in the past is no longer effective with today’s workforce.
- To be a brave leader, it’s critical to ask yourself, Do the people I need to lead and influence experience me as genuine, worthy of trust, reliable, and believable?
- Focusing on action to achieve impact—your Super Objective— aligns who you are on the inside with the actions you take in your life, to ensure people experience you as authentic.

I received a copy of the book as Netgalley reviewer.

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Great ideas that i think are very usable but very dry and hard to get too writing that i wish would have been overworked to make it more enjoyable so that this book could be recommended to a larger number of readers!

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I enjoyed this book, and the layout made it unique. It was laid out in great easy to understand chapters with great use of the connection between them. The insight was relevant to the new cultures being brought into the corporate environment and other organization. I would recommend this as an excellent addition to any leader or future leaders library.

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This is a book that will speak to you if you are looking to make the leap from being a manager managing things to a leader who gets people to follow their dreams and do great work...

Kimberly brings her experience of being an actor on stage (leaders are but actors on stage, always) to the forefront and speaks from this perspective, which I honestly enjoyed..

While some parts of the book could have been edited out, as they didnt add too much to the content, overall, it was a good book to read...

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As a leader in a call center environment, I’m a sucker for new leadership books that attract and engage me. What initially caught my desire with ‘Brave Leadership’ was the key title word of “brave”. That’s not normally the word mentioned when considering leadership outside of military or authoritative roles. But, as this book shows, real leadership, no matter the field, really does call on bravery and the ability to be vulnerable. The author, Kimberly Davis, even says “it doesn’t matter where you worship or if you worship…where you live, which chromosome you have, or if you’re nice…if you’re purple or blue… (because) if you’re a person, vulnerability affects you.” This is because leaders are always on stage, as people are paying attention to their words and actions - or even non-actions.

One of my favorite quotes from Davis in the book is this - “…your unique path has set the foundation for who you are as a leader. It’s how you leverage what you’ve learned from your past, how you act in the present, and how you shape your future that will determine your outcome.”

Each chapter of ‘Brave Leadership’ has a pop-out quote to help keep you focused on the chapter theme as you read, as well as ‘Key Takeaways’ at the end of the chapter.

By dividing the book into sections, Davis first explains why leadership requires bravery, then in part two addresses the barriers to be faced. One of the biggest barriers is that pesky vulnerability. Davis calls it the biggest barrier to brave and the gateway to our most powerful self, which is why the third part of the book is about pushing through those barriers. Section three for me is where the reading got heavier and dry – but the reason mostly is because, to really benefit, this part requires the reader to take the needed time for some soul searching by answering some key questions. Not only does it require time, but lots of honesty and that can be kind of scary. Maybe one day I’ll get brave enough to return to the book and complete this part, but still would recommend ‘Brave Leadership’ for the insight and great reminders about what it takes to be a good leader and make people want to follow you.

I received my copy of the book for review through Net Galley, and was not influenced in any way by anyone about what to say in this review of ‘Brave Leadership’.

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Definitely full of things to think about and good for the variety of leadership training I conduct.

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Sadly, I found the writing style rather dry. As I worked through the book, the content was quite familiar,As the author references several leading thinkers whose work I have read extensively. I found this broader, less-detailed approach was not for me.

I am very grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

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A useful business book to help guide you towards authenticity and reminds us of the importance of connections and building trusting relationships. Some good tips on how to motivate a team through positive thinking. I would probably use some of these tips in a seminar, however none of the concepts that were explored were unique ideas. A good read.

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Sorry this wasn’t for me. Basic, patronising and repetitive. I couldn’t finish it.

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